Soviet Story Partly True, U.s. Admits

March 28, 1985|By Terry Atlas, Chicago Tribune.

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Army major shot to death by a Soviet sentry in East Germany had been photographing Soviet military equipment in an area that previously was off-limits to American observers, senior officials of the State Department and the Pentagon acknowledged Wednesday.

But they said the travel restrictions on the area had been lifted more than a month ago, and they claimed the unarmed officer, Maj. Arthur D. Nicholson Jr., had operated within the understood U.S.-Soviet rules governing the work of such military liaison officers.

The statements appeared to bring the U.S. account of the incident closer to that of the Soviets, but there still were some critical differences, among them the U.S. assertion that Nicholson was not violating a restricted zone. One official said that even if the Soviet account were completely accurate, sentries had a right only to detain the officer.

``They did not have the right to shoot him,`` even though he ``may have`` opened a building window to take his pictures, a senior Pentagon official said emphatically.

White House spokesman Larry Speakes said the administration is considering ``diplomatic-related`` actions in response to the death of Nicholson, 37, shot Sunday near the East German town of Ludwigslust. ``We are considering some steps involving U.S.-Soviet relations, but until they`re finalized, I can`t be specific,`` he said.

In one apparent reaction, a Soviet naval attache traveling on the West Coast as part of a trip sponsored by the U.S. was called back to Washington to receive a formal protest.

Late Wednesday, the No. 2 man at the Soviet Embassy, Oleg Sokolov, was called to the State Department to meet Assistant Secretary of State Richard Burt.

Officials said the administration wants the incident to cost the Soviets something in diplomatic terms, but so far it is reluctant to take actions that might sour the newly improving relations between Washington and Moscow. On Monday, President Reagan said the incident made him ``more anxious`` to hold a summit meeting with the new Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev.

Releasing new details of the incident at a State Department briefing, Pentagon and State Department officials confirmed parts of the Soviet account but disputed the Soviet allegation that Nicholson had gone into a military area designated as prohibited or that he had been warned by the sentry before being shot in the chest.

Moscow charged Tuesday that Nicholson, a member of the U.S military liaison mission in Potsdam, East Germany, had been discovered by a sentry after he approached a building in a restricted military area, opened a window and took pictures.

The senior Pentagon official said Nicholson had been taking pictures of Soviet military equipment inside a building and ``may have`` opened a window. But he said Nicholson had a right to look around under the terms of a 1947 agreement allowing liaison missions of the United States, France and Britain to travel freely in East Germany outside restricted military areas. The Soviets have similar rights in West Germany.

The Pentagon official said restrictions on the area where Nicholson was shot, near Ludwigslust, had been lifted Feb. 20 and that Americans had visited there a week to 10 days earlier.

The 1947 agreement says nothing about observing and photographing military equipment and exercises, and the instructions given U.S. troops in West Germany call for them to detain Soviets seen observing or photographing U.S. troop installations or activities.

``There is a certain cat-and-mouse quality to their operations,`` the Pentagon official said, ``but in no way are they considered spies.``

Administration officials said the work of the military liaison officers in East Germany, where 440,000 Soviet troops are stationed, provides useful information supplementing intelligence gathered from other means, such as spy satellites.

U.S. troops occasionally have detained Soviet liaison officers observing or photographing American military activities in off-limits areas of West Germany, officials said. And they said American liaison officers have been detained and occasionally roughed up in the course of their activities in East Germany.

Nicholson was the first American liaison officer killed since the missions were established in the postwar occupation of the divided Germanys.

The U.S. troops are explictly ordered that ``no force should be used or lives endangered`` to detain a Soviet liaison officer; the official instructions suggest that such an officer`s car be boxed in by American military vehicles if detention is necessary.

The Pentagon official said the U.S. doesn`t know the details of standing orders for Soviet troops stationed in East Germany. ``We assume they have similar rules to ours,`` he said.

American liaison officers in East Germany know they are working at a certain risk and are told to try to avoid being detained, the Pentagon official said. But he said ``common sense`` would suggest that an unarmed liaison officer not run away from an armed sentry.

U.S. officials said Nicholson was shot from a distance of about 100 yards by the Soviet soldier, lay on the ground for an hour with a chest wound and died before a Soviet medic tried to treat him. His driver, Sgt. Jessie Schatz, was held in his car at gunpoint.